Andrew Zimmern is not pleased with Yelp. The Bizarre Foods host and former chef recently slammed the user review site, saying it “essentially gives a tremendous forum for a bunch of uninformed morons to take down restaurants.” Defenders of Yelp and other crowdsourced review sites, such as Zagat, Chow and others, say that the range of reviewers — some morons, some not — at least gives a broad spectrum of opinion, which is more than you can say for a traditional restaurant critic.

But in my experience, Zimmern is right: the reviews are, at best, wildly uneven. In an earlier, more primitive stage of my food-writing career, I had the eye-opening experience of editing a Zagat dining guide for Long Island. I got to see all the reviews for every single place in the book. And guess what? Most of the reviews were utterly misleading. Because the reviewers generally tended to write up only the restaurants they went to frequently, they tended to grossly overrate them. Every strip-mall sushi joint had “the best fish this side of Tokyo!” that “you’d think just came out of the ocean!” The most loved and admired place in the whole area, with four or five times more reviews than anyplace else? The Cheesecake Factory.

I’m not trying to be snotty here, anymore than was the menschy Zimmern. I’m sure I grossly overrate my favorite restaurants, and underrate those that aren’t to my particular taste, or those that I just happened to catch on a bad night. Most of the Yelp reviews I’ve read have been detailed, thoughtful, and fair-minded, as far as I can tell. But that’s the problem. I can’t tell you about all of them. I don’t have time to read them all. Consider this analogy: Last night at dinner four very smart people, all of whose opinions I trusted, told me that Skyfall was bad. Skyfall! I was flabbergasted, but if I hadn’t seen it myself, I might have missed the greatest James Bond movie ever made. (Disclosure: I am a nerd.) At a table of 10 people, four hated Skyfall. On Yelp, that would decimate a restaurant.

To make matters worse, Yelp has the greatest influence not on the Skyfalls of the world, but rather the Beasts of the Southern Wilds and Moonrise Kingdoms. According to a study published last fall by an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, a one-star increase on the site leads to a 5% to 9% increase in revenue — except for chain restaurants, which spend heavily on branding and do not appear to be affected by Yelp reviews: “The impact of this information is larger for products of relatively unknown quality.” In other words, new, small, restaurants, stumbling out into the world on unsteady fawn legs, have the most to gain — or lose — by foodies with starry eyes or an ax to grind.

So what should a person do? Not use Yelp, or Zagat, or the rest? No, that would be dumb. The sites can be a big help, but you have to know how to use them. Ignore non-specific assertions of goodness or badness; even if you know who wrote the reviews and have reason to trust them, there’s no accounting for taste, which is frequently uneven and always subjective. (I, for example, have great taste in hamburgers and terrible taste in Thai food.) But look for believable descriptions of service lapses — not “the waitress was unbelievably rude,” but “we stood at the bar for 40 minutes before we were seated, despite having a reservation.” Look for specific descriptions of dishes, particularly those that involve texture and temperature, two qualities I find unlikely to be wholly fictive. And, best of all, look at every picture you can. Because, unlike Yelp reviews, love letters, and professions of faith, pictures never lie.

After 30 years of successful Authentic Italian Restaurant Business , i am pride to say i know exactly what to look for when am entering any Italian Restaurant, now lets make a big distinguish between a Pizza place and a table cloth restaurant, you can have an outstanding Pizza but the worst nightmare restaurant you ever imagine because are absolutely two different business altogether,when you walk in into what they call an Italian restaurant and see paper or plastic table cloths, with polyester or paper napkin you know your in for a big disappointment, when you walk in into what they call Italian Restaurant and see a menu' that look like a book long, in fact lower level restauranteur thinks the longer is the menu' the better peoples feels WRONG ;; A successful restaurant shall have very few signature dishes and stick with it offering the best quality money can buy, the worst thing a restaurateur can do is to save on quality, especially today that junk food is at every corner, there is no better dish than real home made simple but high quality food, because the longer you will make the menu' the more frozen items you are forced to buy.

Unfortunately today the Real Authentic Italian Restaurant in New York City you can count them in one hand, and the one you can count them in one hand you will still find Hispanic influence in it because the cheap labor, but the Hispanic influence like any other influence will destroy the Authenticity of the Italian dishes by adding ingredient totally unknown in the Italian food , for example before the Mexican got into the Italian kitchen we knew as spicy ingredient only the crushed red peppers which time to time some client like to spread it on pasta or other dishes and has a unique flavor because its not overwhelming hot, and it goes well with many Italian dishes, but Mexicans have introduced Jalapeño peppers which was never know before, but the worst thing is that this pepper is not only extremely hot at the point that will kill any flavor of the dish, in fact in the very fancy restaurant hot peppers is not even available because is killing the flavor of the dish, but this example of changing things around will simply slowly destroy the Authenticity of the Italian cuisine.

another example is because Olives are not an American culture , every American restaurant who likes to imitate Pasta puttanesca are using those green or California olives , in fact for they mentality the bigger the better : WRONG !

Puttanesca pasta shall strictly and rigorously be used gaeta Olives, not because they better ( although they are better) but because the unique flavor will compensate for the rest of the flavor this dish, blending well with the rest of the ingredients , versus the California olives where are simply cured in the water, tasting of cause water, tasteless and the same tasteless the sauce will be.

another sample : 99% of the American palate are very familiar with parmigiano cheese but 95% are using this cheap imitation made in America because the imported is too expensive, which is the shame of the Italian culture because the flavor versus the real parmigiano imported is practically zero, but more over Parmigiano is only one flavor good for many dishes but not good for everything for example as delicious parmigiano can be but for the spaghetti with red tomato sauce you MUST use pecorino , the word pecorino means from sheep milk , pecora in Italian means Sheep, there is a total different taste which only a real Italian can taste and understand. Unfortunately real sheep milk cheese is very hard to come by and that cheap brand called Locatelli that you see in your near supermarket is only the name but there is no quality or taste at all.

Lets not destroy the Authenticity or the real Italian food , and lets get this cheap so called Italian restaurant out of the business because they are ruining the Italian reputation big time.

we were there one weekday me and my 15 years old son .......as soon we came in the few tables already occupied seemed like the place was full but was only an illusion as the size of this dining room is less that 500 Sq Ft.

A man with rolled up sleeves we were told after he was the manager, he start to lay his harms around my shoulder and i told him this is not a classy way to greet peoples, he took off his hands from my shoulder and with a dirty look he seat us in the middle of the dining room without asking if we like this place or not , after all the place was half empty.

as we seat down an arrogant waiter jumped in and start to ask what we like to drink ? we say nothing yet ?

After few minutes another waiter came in, handling us the menu' , as soon i see a menu' as big as a book long i know already what am dealing with ( i have been in the restaurant business 35 years before retired) , and i know only diners have menu' this big, because in the diners you eat the worst of the worst.......simply because it is simply practically impossible to carry all that stuff fresh, therefore 99% of the diner's dishes are pre-prepared , buying 99% already pre-cooked and when an order comes in they simply heat it up and serve....this restaurant was exactly the same.

when i ask the waiter a dish of spaghetti puttanesca al dente he ask me : who ? ....what ? ....and i say a dish of spaghetti puttanesca not too cooked, he nodded but am not sure if he understood ? my son order a dish of penne alla vodka also al dente, but when the pasta came in was like chinese noodles puree', we barely taste few spoon of it and we left the whole thing, we were never asked why anything else we can do to make it better and at the end before we left i told the so called manager that everything was disgusting he told us this is the best we can do.....simply unbelievable....we wind up to spend over $200 for something that was not worth not even $50 obviously i did not leave any tips at all.......and we just walked out with the dirty look of all the staff.

Stay away from this place is simply miserable.......

the Authentic Italian Restaurant you will see it the moment you walk in......?? This peoples are trying to imitate the Italianity of the real Authentic Italian Cuisine but they don't have a clue what real Italian food is all about .

we were there on a Sunday night, the place was half empty, the waiter couldn't care less who came at the front door, no metro D existing rather an Hispanic dirty looking waiter who did not know the difference between a tomato and a potato, his English was barely understandable, in few words he seated us in a very dark corner and disappeared .

Another Champion came in asking if we like to drink something at which we responded : we like to see the menu first , there were no specials , and he just came back throwing the 6 menu in the middle of the table without saying one word........half hour later he came back asking if we ready at which we replied yes we are :

i had Linguini frutti di mare which was simply horrible looking more like a soup than a dish of linguini, the flavor was like water nothing in it , the pasta way over cooked tasting like puree', my wife had salmon half burned and without the simple seasoning on it, my son had fried Calamari hard like rubber, the wine we had for $58 was less than water....in other words the bill came $555.00 and i was not in the mood to leave any tips at all, but my wife advise me to leave at least $20 and i did.

The overall picture is i will not give this place not even One star because is less than deplorable STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE ...............

On what is ostensibly a restaurant review site, there are extremely mentally ill people having intense political and social discussions on Yelp Talk, especially major cities like Chicago.

There is a sick *uck named Armon A who has been banned 14 times to my knowledge who keeps circumventing his ban in order to spread his insanity to people who are also him, to a intense degree. Rumor has it he's a person who needs to be fired from one of my friend's workplaces and likely will be on Drudge Report as somebody who killed many people without warning or provocation.

If you wanna got the money and eat nice food, use Zagat would make more sense, yelp is more idea for majority of people try to see the picture of the food and price whether it worth it a visit, yes there more negative then positive review which is common among average diner and shopper who wanna get the best bang for their bucks.

I don't get the blind and unwarranted hatred toward Yelp. I've found it very useful to find restaurants and venues. Sure, there are a lot of off base reviews and it's usually obvious. If you depend on them you've clearly been under a rock and haven't used the internet or Yelp at all.

So go ahead sit in your ivory tower bashing a measly food related network. Usurp a little some traffic from Yelp. As you write, it seems like a desperate measure for a near defunct magazine and almost out of print magazine to find traffic and ad revenue.

Additionally, your off-base derogatory comments don't help the cause. If you really hated your Yelp community why don't you just participate. Take a couple minutes to write two sentences and put in your two cents. Show how us how it's done.

Also, I've met many Yelpers and they're generally genial great people. A lot of the largest contributors are very helpful and resourceful. Also, they're there to call out the phonies who are spammers, fake reviewers, etc.

Yelpers are not out there to get you. We're not zombiemen or zombiewomen we're real people who love food. A lot of us are some of your biggest customers. I, myself, spend 3-4 days a week just trying out new restaurants and new cuisine. I don't see any harm in that.

You should embrace the Yelper community not work against it. You need to accept the internet as a tool and means of advertising and marketing for the evolving food industry.

Regardless, thanks for your time.

Cheers,

Chris Lee

P.S. Feel free to send your vitriol here if you have the time: @chrisjlee

as far as Skyfall i can'believe you thought it was one of the best for 3 reasons. 1, the badguy actually won,he wanted to kill "mother" and die, he even gave her the opportunity to do both. 2. the bond "women" in most bond films there are 2 women for bond a good and an evil one, neither role in the movie was well executed. 3. almost no gadgets, granted it's a bit cliche but bond always had gadget. I think the film was great a a stand alone but didn't really fit into the genre of bond, it can be argued that it's a great film compared to any single bond film but with 50 years of history and tradition i thought it sticks out like a sore thumb.

A lot of this can be solved by using location based technology to require that a review is crafted on-site. Not only is the emotion more authentic, but the review is more credible as the person had to be there in the first place. Assuming the format was fast and easy, it would draw in more people even if it restricted some from being able to review. Last, this would allow the place to respond and rectify before someone left the place @evzdrop

Yelp is grossly unfair to business'. Their review filter, basically filters all good reviews and only shows complaints. I have 16 x 5 star, unsolicited, honest reviews that Yelp will not post. Then I am harassed by their salesmen for me to advertise with them and they may be able to fix the review filters. Downright Extortion! I truly hate this company and it should be shut down.

The trouble with Yelp is that it's generally populated by kids. They are woefully inexperienced, under-educated (culturally speaking) and have not had time to develop any taste. The main criticism I see on Yelp is that restaurants are too expensive. Well, DUH! If you're used to eating at the Cheesecake Factory -- or your local strip mall joint -- of course a good restaurant seems expensive. But in most cases, you get what you pay for. The stuff you're raving about may be cheap, and much better than dorm food, but we don't need your uninformed opinions cluttering up websites that otherwise might be useful.

The problem isn't with moronic reviewers, but with moronic/lazy readers. It takes effort to understand and weigh a review, professional or not.

1. Any user reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt. You have to look for patterns rather than glowing or extremely negative reviews.

2. Professional reviewers don't bother with smaller eateries and small town businesses. Without user generated reviews, small businesses would have zero exposure.

3. I did not think Skyfall was that good. I have very specific problems with it, too (ie. length, shambling plot, cliche, story holes, some dodgy issues with seducing a sex slave, etc.) The point to this is: Taste differs, and I don't hold it against people who liked Skyfall, but I wish I had heard a minority opinion before paying my money to see it. Instead I got nothing but gushing reviews from professional reviewers.

I agree yelp is a forum of morons. People are using it to blackmail businesses now. People tend to lie and exaggerate things if you don't offer them what they want. Also I have noticed people who write 1 star reviews seem to do that for almost every business they write a review about. So much for freedom of speech!

We caught a woman stealing a small item from our business, and my wife told her not to come back again. The thief became incensed, because she liked shopping at our place. She swore at my wife, and threatened to ruin us online. Sure enough, our employees reported that she want to every rating service and make up a big story about how my wife called her a f***ing bi*** when she couldn't get away with overcharging her, etc.

Look at every picture you can? Of what? The food? Yea, that's going to tell you a lot....The interior? Sure, that's another wildly subjective area of like or dislike. The exterior? The parking lot? Dumb.

As a small restaurant owner in the first two years, I have seen great inequities and hash unfairness with Yelp. Firstly, as other have pointed out, good reviews often get hidden just because it was near the initial creation of the Yelp page, or the reviewer has just a few reviews. Meanwile, people that seem to love to not just complain, but LIE about what was offered or how much they were charged go posting with no real function to call them on it. Post publicly that they're wrong, and risk a flame war. Contact them privately, and get no reply (heavens forbid they admit to being wrong).

Yelp, in theory, is a good thing. In practice, nope. Thankfully more and more are discounting the value of Yelp reviews.

When a business falls short of expectations, those people are far more likely to spread the negativity than the folks who were pleased.

Example: This comment thread... the article is getting many critical comments of yelp, even though there are many people who find it a useful tool. Pissed off people are louder than happy ones. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

I like Yelp but you have to take it with a grain of salt. Generally people who care about it enough to write up a review are people who either had an amazing experience or a terrible one. I love Yelp in new places, not for the reviews but because it's an easy way to find out what is nearby.

Yelp is absolutely terrible. Worst possible "service" for small business. I hope they die a quick death. I am shocked that they can avoid the countless potential lawsuits against them. Each and every time they get away with it by claiming they are just a 'forum'. Ironically, yelp's own profile on yelp.com has a measly 3-star rating. Can you imagine? http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco

I am so pissed with Yelp that my eyes are bleeding blood. Here is the deal: I own a mortgage business and have been listed with Yelp for several years. Every single time that I get a review...it will show for one day, then ends up hidden. The impression that customers have is that the review is false, that I am trying to game the system, and I cannot be trusted. UNFAIR. I pay $3.5 per click for advertising on the Yelp site. You would think that they would answer my responses regarding the review filter. All I got was nonsense from a corporate monkey. Terrible, terrible, terribly run company with no outreach to paying customers, god help you if you not are a paying customer. Can you call a real person? Not a chance. Folks, this is publicly listed company with massive resources, yet its run like an immature start up and a bunch of petty teenaged kids. BTW, Yelp if you are reading this, then why are all of competitors able to get at least one review listed, I am the only company with multiple reviews (8 total) and not a single one gets posted?

Yelp is a sketchy company. If you're a business owner and you have customers raving about your business; I have heard of Yelp withholding great reviews from companies until they subscribe to Yelp's paid membership. I've heard upwards of $300/month before Yelp will republish those great reviews. They are scummy and great businesses, with great reviews, that don't subscribe to Yelp's monthly membership are not being heard.

That said, using a company like @Demandforce will submit newsletters to a review site like Yelp to help drive more traffic to your Yelp Business Page. Demandforce helps generate reviews that can stream to your Google+ Business Page. The reviews won't publish directly on the Business Page - as that require a Gmail account - but they appear at the bottom. Business Pages are like High School, the more people that are talking about you and the more reviews you have streaming to that page, the more likely you are to appear higher in searches.

The thing with Yelp is that with enough reviews, eventually every restaurant, bar, etc. will look like a bell curve. Some people will hate a place, others will love it, but most will fall somewhere in between. Sure, some places the bell curve will be shifted one way or the other, but that in no way determines what kind of experience one will have.

The main problem with Yelp is that it creates expectations. People go into a restaurant expecting something and when the outcome doesn't match their expectations, that translates into a lower rating. Have you ever noticed that most of the low ratings are due to poor service or is it due to people spending money and feeling they're entitled to be waited on hand and foot?

People being critical and judging others, whether it be a restaurant or someone else's service, is not a reflection of that restaurant, but actually is a better reflection of that person.

I go into every experience with an open mind and with no expectations. I choose to see the best in every situation, enjoy it, and make no judgement. Think about what our society could be if all we contributed was positivity and supported everyone instead of tearing down.

This article is missing some things on how yelp works. I base my reviews more on well written reviews, vs. the actual star rating. You can go into the restaurant and see *who* is writing these reviews. Are they somebody who has written a lot? Is it somebody from out of town? Is it somebody from a city that has better X saying the local place is not authentic, while all the locals say it's the best they've had, and maybe the first time they have ever tried it? You can also follow people who's taste and reviews you trust. It's definitely better than Zagat.Needless to say, sometimes you still get burned by a good yelp review, especially if it only has 5-10 options, but that is part of the fun of trying new places, sometimes you find a gem, sometimes you get a bad meal. For instance, a good review on pizza will have comments on what they ordered, how the sauce was, what the crust was, and possibly of other places that it compares to. You can describe if something has been sitting out for awhile, if the fish was old, if the vegetables were crisp, if lettuce was too limp, things of that nature. You can definitely describe service quality without saying good or bad, like how long the wait was, if waiter messed up your order, etc.

As a business owner my impression of YELP is that they move the bad reviews to the top by removing good reviews. This creates a negatively distorted representation of the business and in my humble opinion constitutes a form of slander. The courts don't agree with me or YELP would be out of business after the many lawsuits it has waded through. Still I don't put much stock in YELP reviews. Google and Yahoo are a lot more fair when it comes to reviews, listing them chronologically.

Thing is...people have the ability to spot Yelp reviews that have the "ring of truth," and to ignore ones that are idiotic or even bogus. The author knows that statements like “the best fish this side of Tokyo!” that “you’d think just came out of the ocean!” should be ignored for a strip mall sushi joint. Yelp users, in general, have this very same ability to discern!

In my experience, Yelp removes positive comments ( the negatives stay) and then contacts the business owner to solicit paid advertisement to get the good comments back. It's like the old Yellow Pages with it's dirty tricks! They removed positive comments from my business, and now asking me to start paying monthly. They should go out of business, and it is not real "crowdsourcing" if someone edits and hides good reviews!

I like Zimm but he's wrong on this one. How else would you know that a restaurant sucks? And many people....myself included..go out of their way to be fair to the restaurants they critique. And when I'm looking for a good restaurant I don't let one or two sour opinions affect my decision because you have to factor in the people who complain about everything. I've found that if the majority of reviews say a restaurant is bad the it probably is. Likewise if the majority say it's good then it probably is.

Seriously? I've seen thriving restaurants getting no more than 3 stars. I've never seen a restaurant "decimated" by 4 bad reviews and neither have I seen a restaurant having a good night every night of the week because of stellar reviews on Yelp. Case in point is Cheesecake factory. Crowded every night but only 3 stars by most folks on Yelp. The local Ethiopian restaurant has 4 and a half stars from 50 reviews. But even on a busy friday night, our table and the next one are the only patrons there. While the Ethiopian restaurant across the road is packed and has 3 and a half stars from 43 reviews. The only people who are Morons are people who sue Yelp reviewers and take them seriously enough to think those reviews matter. If you are losing business, it isn't because of one bad review on Yelp, it's because your business practices, or food or service just happens to be so bad, no one wants to do business with you. You can blame yelpers all you want, but you will continue to be really bad at what you do. I go to yelp to check if they accept scoutmob, if portions are reasonable, if they only accept cash. Not if the food is " the best thing in the world". Sheesh.

I've always found Zagat's to be pretty on the money, and that's just Yelp without having to see the written assessments of each and every moron who submits one. And really, I couldn't give a flying crap about the opinions of "professional" food critics, so why not roll the dice on the collective impressions of thousands of - mostly - morons?

I usually dig your writing, but I think you're well off-base on this one. Sure, a lot of Yelp reviews are probably misinformed, non-specific, moronic, etc. But averaged out, they become a strikingly accurate indicator of a restaurant's quality, at least in my experience. In a city where the average restaurant has 50+ Yelp reviews, the signal-to-noise ratio becomes such that Yelp is a far better resource than any single critic's review, regardless of how well-informed that critic might be.

Yelp is a joke but a serious one for small business. If I had to rate Yelp overall I would give it one star. It is wrought with people without a life and no understanding of common decency or business for that matter.

That's followed by ethically challenged competitors and just plain mean people.

The people with an axe to grind are not putting another business out of business but helping hard working employee's looking for employment elsewhere. That's good karma wouldn't you say?

I hope Yelp goes out of business and Jeremy stoppelman goes to jail for destroying so many lives.

@chrisjlee I don't think anyone thinks Yelpers are out to get them. The problem is Yelp itself. Yelp employs very sketchy tactics in its sales process, essentially allowing more positive reviews if the business does advertisiing with Yelp.

Yelp has a "filtered reviews" section. The "filtered reviews" may / may not be real reviews. Yelp tries their best to filter out made up 'fake' reviews, or reviews where a business has paid to get someone to do a review (basically a non-legit review). If you pay Yelp, they are not quite as "aggressive" on filtering the positive reviews. It's rare that they filter a negative review. You pay them for other things though: advertising, etc. and things just 'get better'

So, in reality - yes - businesses who pay Yelp will end up with improved reviews.

Yelp's reviews currently fall under 1st amendment protection. This is what prevents yelp from falling under FTC authority and why the lawsuits have failed. However, filtering based on payment to Yelp (something they swear does not happen, but which huge amounts of anecdotal evidence says otherwise) would be considered "commercial speech" and hence be FTC regulated.

@davidmrush@evzdrop I think that's a strong idea. If anyone here is familiar with the StackExchange sites (such as StackOverflow, etc) - people have reputations. Reputation is based on *validity* of the information they suggest. If people could review reviews, then it could be quite useful. Yelp sort of has this, but it doesn't use it to rate reviewers or decide which reviews should post. It has some dark, mythical algorithm which has no visibility. StackExchange just uses 'points'... Plenty of weird 'one review' reviewers exist on Yelp. And this reviews can really help/hurt new businesses.

One person is statistically going to be 'average'. A few people are smarter thanks to new ideas, and everyone together is more stupid. Look at the government. If Billy's theory was right, then we should not have fiscal cliffs, cancer, and Republicans.

@Hold3n Be a skeptic all you want @shadedesignstudio - but first do some research on your own. Google "Yelp class action lawsuit" and "Yelp extortion reddit" (to see an entire reddit thread on the issue.Go talk to a business who pays Yelp. I have and I am a business... Yelp has a "filtered reviews" section. The "filtered reviews" may / may not be real reviews. Yelp tries their best to filter out made up 'fake' reviews, or reviews where a business has paid to get someone to do a review (basically a non-legit review). If you pay Yelp, they are not quite as "aggressive" on filtering the positive reviews. It's rare that they filter a negative review. You pay them for other things though: advertising, etc. and things just 'get better'

So, in reality - yes - businesses who pay Yelp will end up with improved reviews.

Yelp's reviews currently fall under 1st amendment protection. This is what prevents yelp from falling under FTC authority and why the lawsuits have failed. However, filtering based on payment to Yelp (something they swear does not happen, but which huge amounts of anecdotal evidence says otherwise) would be considered "commercial speech" and hence be FTC regulated.

Be forewarned investors. If NYSE:YELP loses one of the court cases (more are on the docket) and the FTC can regulate them, then it's likely small business will be able to ask Yelp to pull their listing. If this happens their business model dies, because only popular restaurant with Yelpers will survive - and reviews will be meaningless.

@KincaidMeyerson You're absolutely correct. 60% of internet users us Google, in turn, Google reviews are more powerful than Yahoo, Yelp, CitySearch, etc. Although there are many users on each of those other review sites, if you're going to invest in 1 site to generate reviews, Google is the way to go.

@shadedesignstudio@theagrawal I think the actual rating is probably much much lower. Yes, I am implying strongly that their 3-star rating will likely never dip below that - though the truth is probably far worse. Yelp strongarms businesses into advertising with them. Reviews that would normally be filtered out by their algorithms miraculously get published if you happen to be a paying customer. They have their own sorting algorithm (called yelp sort) as well - very convenient when you want to show a 5-star rating at the top even though countless more negative reviews may have been written after that particular one. I own a small business and I know many business owners that advertise with them - some of them run such shoddy operations that I know their "4-star" reviews are the result of paid advertising with yelp. The model is inherently designed to hurt small business. It's not vastly different the groupon model - that while providing the consumer with "immense value" they are hurting small businesses. Only desperate businesses issue groupons today. Why would a consumer pay 100% for a service or product that they have now gotten accustomed to paying 50% for? Hopefully consumers will realize the fraudulent nature of yelp.